Originally Posted by
fourtheroad
Hello, we are a family of four biking across America. I am interested in this thread, because we bought Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires to replace what we were riding on. We replaced them in Pensacola, FL, and have had several flats on them coming west. A few were my fault, due to walking our bikes through goat head thorns (ACCIDENTALLY)!
We have had several due to the small truck tire wires. I was under the assumption that Schwalbe tires by themselves would do the trick, but they haven't. In fact, I am running one Walmart Kevlar, and it has held up better than the Schwalbe's!
I know this sounds blasphemous, but it is the way it has happened.
Please give advice!
Fourtheroad,
Paul H says he has had really good luck with Schwalbe Marathon Pluses with original, I believe, Mr. Tuffy liners. As I stated elsewhere, in my experience, the SMPs are near bombproof when new, but after, say, 6000 miles, they become pockmarked and the rubber doesn't "bounce" road debris off as well as it used to. My wife's front tire has ~8700 miles on it and has had 5 flats in 32 months. The treads are good, though pockmarked. I just put on an ultralight Mr. Tuffy liner, no talcum powder and no beveling of edges, on her wheel. We shall see how this works. Remember that the Smart Guard is 5 mm thick in the SMPs. Anything longer than 5 mm will go through and puncture the tube. I tend to check my tires every week. I use a pick to pry out debris stuck in the rubber. Sometimes those small looking pieces are l-o-n-g when I pull them out. Oh, my wife and I biked the TransAm east to west in 1979, before the invention of SMPs. Tired of all the flats, in Pueblo, CO, I put in thorn resistant tubes in the rear tires. Never had another flat on the rear tires the rest of the trip. Good luck!